I drink this beer in memory of my Riv

I use a drier on my compressor set up. I can't compress more nitrogen, so with as much use as my air tools get, I better have stock in Praxair or Airgas! LOL! But I couldn't have cared less about having Nitrogen in the tires. It's not my drag car, nor my hot rod. It's my daily driver.

It was just funny when I walked out to my car, the first thing I spotted was the ugly green valve stem caps! Whatever?

Back to the original topic of the thread...

The car is getting there... This weekend is plugs, wires (both AC delco from rockauto), belts and transmission filter and fluid change. Those of you that have done these jobs, about how long do you think I should budget to get the work done?

If there is any time permitting, I'd love to spend some time detailing the car. It's in great shape, but I can make it nicer!

After this weekend, I'm looking forward to many miles of little to no maintenance. We'll see...

VegasScott

VegasScott wrote:

I use a drier on my compressor set up. I can't compress more nitrogen, so with as much use as my air tools get, I better have stock in Praxair or Airgas! LOL! But I couldn't have cared less about having Nitrogen in the tires. It's not my drag car, nor my hot rod. It's my daily driver.

It was just funny when I walked out to my car, the first thing I spotted was the ugly green valve stem caps! Whatever?

Back to the original topic of the thread...

The car is getting there... This weekend is plugs, wires (both AC delco from rockauto), belts and transmission filter and fluid change. Those of you that have done these jobs, about how long do you think I should budget to get the work done?

If there is any time permitting, I'd love to spend some time detailing the car. It's in great shape, but I can make it nicer!

After this weekend, I'm looking forward to many miles of little to no maintenance. We'll see...

VegasScott

there are threads about all these jobs, but they may be tough to find due to age - maybe AA or some of the OPs will point to them.

As for time I think the plug wires and transmission filter changes are unremarkable. The belts are routed thru the engine mount, however there was a running change in '97 I think, the mounts were redesigned so you could pull out the lower right bolt (as you look at the mount from the pass side wheel well--part ofthe quick way to change belts is to remove that wheel) and ferrule, so you don't have to remove the mount actually. it just looks like you do. My '98 has such a front motor mount. And the plugs are not too bad but you may want to go after the bank near the firewall with a plug socket on a wobble extension and as usual nowadays the wells are deep so, also as usual, blow the dirt out w/shopair b4 you wrench... Some people make up new words (not necessarily english) when they are R&Ring that bank.

You're more skilled/better equipped than I am so anything I'd say about time would be wrong. But the old writeups are good and tell you stuff that's true, useful and not in the factory manual (at all), I'd have a look at 'em then draw my own guesstimate.

Albertj

Yeah, that will probably be my Friday night activity after the wife and kids go to bed. I'll thumb through the manual and poke around on a few of the excellent threads on here. I'm hoping to hit it early Saturday and be done by middle afternoon. It will all depend on how many interuptions I get. Those of your with kids know what I mean. Haha!

I don't think any of these jobs will be as bad as doing the intake manifold gaskets without a manual. Man, my entire backside of my body was sore the next day! It's been a while since I had to work in that position! But I'm fully recovered and ready to go.

VegasScott

Well, I can now cross off the belts, pulleys (they were easy to check with belts off), and transmission filter and fluids off my list. I got cut short because of family activities, so the last maintenance items I need to take care of are plugs and wires.

Depending on what my wife has in store for me and the family today, I may be able to get out there and try my hand at the plugs and wires.

Once I took off the belts, I spun each of the pulleys without the load on them. 2 of them were a bit "rattle-y" (I made up that word ) and had some noise when I spun them, so I went over to Orielly and bought all 4 pulleys in the Gates brand. Upon restarting the engine, it was slightly quieter. Cool! I'll take it!

As for the transmission filter and fluid change, I spent considerable time on this job. More to the fact that I was cleaning up the big mess I made! I had a jackstand too close to the area that I needed to work in and I couldn't get my catch tray close enough. Well, thank God for epoxy coated floors! Also, the filter was old and brittle and broke when trying to remove. Add to that the time to clean up the transmission oil pan, and the floor and a job that should be very quick took me twice as long. I did upgrade the fluid to full synthetic Dexron XI from Valvoline. I'm now 100% synthetic on my fluids in the car. Cool!

Next Up, plugs and wires! All the dirty gritty stuff is done.

Then I can get to a top level detailing on the entire car!

VegasScott

Yeah that filter change is a PITA. The neck always breaks off on removal and there is also a little adapter jammed up in there that should come out, but you have to squish it in with a screwdriver to get pliers on it to pull it out... awful design there.

I added a drain plug to the pan when I did mine to greatly reduce future messes and also makes it really easy to change a couple of quarts with each oil change.

Yeah, I got the seal out too. If you use a screwdriver you can pry it out per the factory manual instructions. I pressed my new one in with a tool from my VW and the floor jack. Worked great!

Man this thing drives like a dream! I love it! I just hit 90000 miles on the odo and what a difference some maintenance will do for a car! I got the car with 89xxx miles on it. Its like a brand new car. I have plugs and wires to do, and a major detailing, but I'm happy as hell with this thing.

VegasScott

Got my next set of "Merit Badges" earned for Riviera Repairs...

Just did the supercharger coupler and fluid change. That was pretty straight forward and was done in short order.

Did the plugs for the first time, and the #4 and #6 cylinders slowed me down. It took a lot to get the wires off and to find the right tool combinations to get the plugs.

The engine is even quieter with the new SC coupler and runs butter smooth!

Last up, front and rear trans mounts. I'm NOT looking forward to the rear mount job!

Any of you veterans have any suggestions or tips for me on that rear mount?

VegasScott

I bought my Riviera in Dec 2010 and drove just shy of 50,000 trouble free miles. I bought the car in nice 2 owner shape, but dumped $500 in parts for just preventative maintenance. I did lower intake manifold gaskets due to the leak I found. After that I did all the plugs wires belts hoses etc. I then moved into doing the engine mounts and a blend motor for the hvac system. I tried to document as much as I could in my repairs and posted most of them up here.
Through it all, I had this forum to help me locate parts and see what others before me had done in their repair efforts. Anyway, I just sold the car for my original purchase price and I couldn't be happier with the service it gave me. I already miss the pep of that supercharger. My new car is a 2011 CTS, and it is. nice, but it doesn't have the "balls" that my buick had.

To my riv, this buds for you! (Actually Blue Moon)

Thanks fellas!
VegasScott

Hey now! Being a family that has had Marines and Army amoung us, that song always brings a tear to my eye.

As for the buick, it "ain't" dead! Its fully alive and kicking! I sold it to a guy in Henderson that wants to enjoy it as a cruiser. He's going to take great care of it and I told him about this forum!

VegasScott

If you sold it for what you paid for it, it's probably a good move.

Yes I did. I'm probably out $700-$800 for all the parts and tires I bought for it. But even so, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a car you can drive for that cheap!

VegasScott